An entrepreneur who wishes to sell goods over the internet typically creates a web site, which functions as a virtual store. The web site displays or otherwise describes the goods on sale and provides controls for causing execution of certain software. These controls enable the virtual store to accept orders for goods, process payments, and receive instructions for delivery.
The fulfillment of such orders, however, involves more conventional methods for delivery. Software executing in connection with the virtual store generally sends a message that ultimately causes the selected goods to be physically transported to their destination. This greatly simplifies the tasks inherent in creating a virtual store for sale and/or distribution of goods over the internet.
For those who wish to sell content, the internet provides a way to deliver the actual content. Virtual stores for content distribution typically maintain collections of computer-readable files containing data representing content. Using the internet, the virtual store either downloads or streams this data to a client. This fulfillment method is particularly useful for distributing media content, such as audio and/or video, text, or other multimedia presentations.
The construction of a virtual store for facilitating the sale and/or distribution of media content is made far more difficult by the need to provide software for processing the media content, delivering it on demand, playing selected portions of the content upon request, and enforcing intellectual property rights in the content. Virtual stores for content distribution are often expected to cope with efficiently delivering content to a great many clients who collectively use a variety of internet protocols, including, but not limited to, http, ftp, and mms. Individual creators of media content often lack the technical skills for creating such a virtual store, or the resources to hire someone to create such a store on their behalf.
As a practical matter, the difficulties inherent in creating a virtual store for distribution of media content all but force the creator of such content to seek assistance from an established distributor. However, established distributors are often wary of committing their marketing and distribution resources on behalf of unknown talent. Moreover, even when persuaded to lend their assistance, there is a price exacted by such a distributor, both in terms of revenue sharing and in the loss of control over the marketing and distribution of content.